


bathroom walls

by mackisanobody



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Falling In Love, Fluff, Happy Ending, Highschool AU, M/M, Mutual Pining, its cute tho, smh, they don’t know it’s the other replying lol, theyre vandalising
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-07-25 03:59:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16189625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackisanobody/pseuds/mackisanobody
Summary: every day richie writes a new message on the bathroom walls. sometimes eddie replies.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i’m sorry if this is trash lol i came up with this at 1am

it was the tuesday afternoon during third period when richie excused himself from his biology classroom, it wasn't unusual to see the lanky boy standing up from where he was sitting in one of his classes and just walking out, lost in thought. none of the teachers really minded, the tozier boy maintained his A average, and that was all that they could ask for. strutting through the schools currently empty hallways, richie hummed a tune to keep his nerves from flaring up. thought a kid that was admired by many for his cool composure, he always thought there was something eerie about school hallways alone. he arrived at the male bathrooms and and doubled checked there was no-one he knew around before he opened the bathroom door and slid inside a stall. he rarely ever actually used the bathroom here, for its intended purposes at least- it was on the opposite side of the school from his locker and he didn't have any classes in the section of the school, he'd dropped them all last year. instead he used the third stall as a journal. he wrote anonymous messages about anything and everything he wanted to. from how his english substitute teacher looked like that one dude from back to the future, he took bathroom polls on how many kids the lunch lady would have had to eaten to look like that, and- most importantly- how in love he was with a certain ball of sunshine named eddie kaspbrak. of course he’d never actually write eddies name, that would just set him up as a target for even more bullying, and richie wouldn't be able to live with himself he eddie had to deal with anymore then he already did. the bowers gang had it out for eddie, they always had. richie thought it was just because he was small and an easy target, but it turned out, as richie had learned one fateful night when they were 13, that is was instead because eddie had rejected henry's advances. when they were 12, henry had kissed eddie while at a birthday party, during a game of spin the bottle. eddie had pushed him off and since then, henry hated the embarrassment that came along with thinking about it. so instead he clearly decided that the best thing that he could do was to make eddie's life a living hell. so, instead of richie saying eddie's name, he referred to him by his looks; the boy with the sun-kissed skin, the chocolate brown eyes, the short boy with freckles that lined his checks as though they were small stars. though richie had descriptions that perfectly lined up with eddie. he never expected it. he just was amazed that there was another gay kid at the school. even if he was closeted. richie desperately wanted to tell him who it was. 

richie liked to think people read his messages scrawled on the walls and thought they were poetic, like, something out of a really old shakespearean novel. if richies AP english class had taught him anything, it was how to write a darn good metaphor. but when it came down to it, he knew they were probably thinking, ‘what cuck took the time out of his day to write this garbage.’ and in all honestly, richie was okay with that, because he knew eddie read the messages. and that's who there were for. in fact the shorter boy had spoke to richie many times about these 'cute little messages' and how 'adorable and sweet' they were. eddie constantly wondered who the lucky boy was that was getting written about. little did he know. richie wished he had the courage to tell eddie how he felt, face to face. but he knew that he never would, he was to afraid. not of rejection so to say, but more the lose of friendship that would come with it. richie had lost a lot in his life, and no matter how bad things got, eddie was his constant. eddie was the one thing, one person, that had never left his side and never planned to. no matter what happened they would get through it together, it was an unspoken, mutual agreement that came along with being each-others favourite person. so, for now at least,on the bathroom stalls his feelings would stay.

he picked out a purple sharpie from the bottom of his unorganized, red backpack and began to write on the exposed brick wall of the third stall. ‘lets have a vote. what’s worse; mr harold trying to get us involved in chemistry though cat memes from 2011 OR ms kanovski calling mathematic equations ‘hip.’ you decide, vote below.’ richie then proceeded to draw up a little table were people could leave their tally’s and mainly explicit thoughts. then he wrote the date and time at the bottom of the writing, as he had done every single other time, as a reminder that he was always going to be on that wall, and would continue to do until he left the damned school. richie dropped the the sharpie back in his bag and marveled at his work, smiling at the addition to the wall. 

running his hands through his hair, richie left the bathroom with a slight spring in his step and walked back into his biology class, where he took a seat next to one of his oldest and most snarky friends, stan. he tried to focus on whatever it was his teacher was saying, but they seemed to drag on, his eyes were instead drawn to the ticking clock on the back wall. and for his mind? that definitely wasn't on the chemical makeups that it was supposed to be. he had eds on his mind. his eds.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i edited! magic!

eddie patiently waited in the cafeteria for his best friend, richie tozier. though eddie supposed 'best friend' was a bit of an understatement. they were extremely close, closer then eddie was with anyone else in the losers club, even bill, who he had known all his life. eddie was certain that all the stares held to long, all the times the two would sneak out together, just to talk, all the small, unneeded but wanted touches meant something. at least to eddie. richie was an affection person, there was no denying that, but eddie liked to imagine that he was special in richies eyes. eddies eyes lingered on the cafeteria door, watching it swing open and closed, seeing his peers come and go. his table filled with the rest of the losers, but not yet the one that he longed to see. eddie was about to bring himself back to the conversation that his friends were currently engaged in, something about stans latest and greatest bird watching expedition until the door finally swung open in a manor that could have been detrimental to anyone standing close to it. he watched as the a tall boy with truely, terribly, unruly curls stand behind the door and shoot eddie an award winning smile, showing off his braces in all their rainbow glory. richie's blue eyes met with the other boys dark ones, before the gaze was broken by the door swinging back and hitting him square in the face. eddie let out a gasp and jumped up from his seat, hurrying his way over, through crowds of people, a few of so were looking in richies direction, waiting to see if he'd open the door like nothing happened. eddie threw the doors open to reveal a fallen richie. literally. he was seated on the ground with fogged up, crooked glasses and a red nose. eddies heart ached for the other boy, he hated seeing him in any sort of pain. eddie crouched down to the level where richie currently was.  
“how's the nose?” eddie gave him a concerened look, reaching out and adjusting richie's glasses so they properly sat on his nose.   
“i think i'm going to die. give it to me straight, doctor k, am i going to die a virgin?”  
“piss off” the smaller boy giggled, "like you of all people would let yourself die like that."  
richie gave eddie his most innocent grin and put on one of his most practiced voices, which he liked to call 'southern beauty queen.' “now listen here darlin', i'm the president of the chastity club town here in tennessee, how dare you accuse me of such vile acts!”  
eddie let out a hearty laugh, his friends voices, however bad, managed to always put a smile on his face. “come on, let's get you cleaned up.” eddie stood up, dusted himself off before holding out a hand for richie to grab. richie took it and hoisted himself up with a groan, almost pulling eddie back over with the force. eddie looked down at their hands that were still intertwined, and his heart got caught in his throat. richie let out an awkward, silence breking cough  
while eddie was walking out the doors he held an obnoxiously loud voice yell, “but it’s a hot mess!”

eddie had no idea why richie was always so, loud. there were times, like today. where eddie could just use a friend to talk to- not the human equivalent of a pet. but he truely couldn’t complain because he adored richie. he really did, and he loved everything about the boy, no matter how much he complained about him. richie was eddies best friend, his soulmate. but he was pretty sure from the amount of times he’d seen richie making out with random girls behind the school, or in the deserted hallways- that richie didn’t feel that same. he felt like trash that he was even having these thoughts. richie deserved a best friend that didn’t think about what he would look like naked. 

eddie walked into the bathroom and looked at his hair in the mirror, it wasn’t the worst that it had been before, but it certainly wasn’t as neat as it should have been. ‘people don’t like dirty boys’ his mothers voice rung in his head. he tried to shake the thoughts away. he told himself over and over that he was no longer under his mother’s influences, that he was in control. after calming down (and receiving weird looks from his fellow students), he splashed some water in his face and ran a hand through his hair, neatening it up again. eddie decided he may as well use the bathroom sewing as he was here already, so he walked into the first stall. while he was doing his business, he read the walls. many messages of love and laughter scattered them, all from the mystery bathroom scrawler. he noticed a new one today. 

‘what’s worse; mr harold trying to get us involved in chemistry though memes from 2011 OR ms kanovski calling mathematic equations ‘hip.’ you decide, vote below.’ it read, in moderately messy hand writing. it made eddie chuckled, before promptly covering his mouth, because it was weird to hearing someone laughing in the bathroom to themselves. eddie pulled out a black permanent marker from his bag and in the column for me harold wrote, ‘old chemists never die, they just stop reacting.’ it was the pun he had used first day of chemistry this year, and every other year. it was an ongoing joke between the students. eddie smiled at his handiwork and put the marker back in his bag. he finished up and left the bathroom with a smile on his face. he always enjoyed when he replied to the messages on the bathroom walls, because he would usually get a nice reply from the mystery man. eddie liked to think that him and the boy could be friends if they met eachother in real life, maybe he’d even replace richie as his man-crush-everyday. from the words on the wall he seemed like a sweet boy, who was so infatuated with another. but he also wasn’t out yet. which unfortunately, didn’t help to limit the suspects as to who it could be. 

eddie walked back into the cafeteria to see all his friends sitting around the table which was previously occupied by just him and richie. his heart warmed at the sight. he loved his friends with all his heart. they were like the family he choose. eddie took back his position next to richie, and everything fell into place. eddie wasn’t even thinking about the boy behind the messages, instead, focusing on whatever brilliant tale bev had in store for today.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> richie almost lets slip hes the writer, almost.

eddie and richie walked home together as usual. when they did, they stood so close together that they practically walked with three legs instead of four. it was a natural thing for them. richie would automatically slow his walk so that his little eddie spaghetti could keep up with his gigantic steps. their walks were either one of two things; a comfortable silence, which small talk through in at random- but never lasting long, or, a none stop chatter, that was full of sex jokes and laughs. today, it happened to be the latter. 

the two boys met at the school gates and instantly began talking about how eddie had been in the teachers staff from during 4th period to collect some books, and had overheard their office ladies talking about henry bowers possible suspension. “how great would that be?” eddie smiled, presenting the rhetorical question to the other boy, “we’d all be stress free! no need to be worrying about walking down the hallways at the wrong time, because theirs no one to beat you up st the end of them!” the shorter boy used his hands to tell the story. though he was certainly not the storyteller of the two, he felt as though his stories made more sense when you added jazz hands. they turned to corner at the end of the street,  
“did you see the writing on the bathroom stall today, eds?” richue asked, rolling the sleeves of his sweater up. it was a purple and black striped one that eddie had given him for his birthday. apparently the small boy was more stubborn then he had originally thought, as no amount of insisting could convince eddie not to get him a gift.  
“i did!” eddie exclaimed, the memory jogging back into his thoughts- but than another hit him, “but how did you? it wasn’t there in second, and you didn’t go to the bathroom during lunch, or fourth?”  
richie hesitated for a second, “third period. jeez eddie spaghetti- use your logical thinking.”  
eddie laughed that the boy, “oh forgive me for I have sinned.”  
“i could make you sin again, babe.” richie winked, nudging the smaller boy in the arm. eddie pushes richie away and made a ‘bleh’ sound. “beep beep, trashmouth.” 

they arrived on their street, and even though from the way they were walking, richies house was first, he always walked eddie to his door. it was great for eddie because it eliminated all chance of bowers beating his face in. and it was even greater for richie because he got to spend more time with eddie. when they got to eddies house, richie gave eddie a spike crushing hug, lifting him off the ground.   
“jeez tozier, i’ll see you tomorrow.” eddie laughted, hugging the boy back. richie put his down and smiled.  
“but i’ll get seeing your mum tonight.” he remarked winking at him.  
“you’re gross!” eddie rolled his eyes dramatically. he walked up to his front door and looked back at richie, who was grinning ear to ear. richie cat whistled to the boy.   
“great view from back here!” the tall boy called out. 

eddie could only smile when he entered his house.


	4. Chapter 4

eddie sat cross-legged next to richie, whose back was leant up against a tree. it was nice today and the teachers were encouraging the kids to get outside at lunch. of course, richie wanted to use that as an excuse to have a smoke (or two) behind the school, but eddie had talked him out of it.  
"you know, if you keep smoking you're going to die when you're like 30." eddie complained when richie had even mentioned the idea in his presence, "it's honestly such an unhealthy habit, plus it makes you smell like shit, more than usual." the small boys voice was raised to get his point across. while the boy ranted, richie could do nothing but stare at the was his eyebrows were curled in frustration and concern, or the way his lips managed to keep up with his brain. though richie would have to say, the most adorable thing about the scene unfolding in front of him was the fact that even though what eddie was saying was meant to come of as harsh, it was actually just eddie caring for him and his well being. both the boys knew that. eddie had once admitted to richie that the only reason he was so on his back about his health and hygiene was because he cared and he didn't want the boy ending up a sick, unhealthy slob. the two boys hadn't talked about it since then, but it was still an unspoken understanding. 

so now, there they were, sitting next to each other under the shade of a tree that was just out of view from the rest of the school. none of the other losers had decided to join them. bev made some excuse about spending more time with ben, and bill, stan and mike were in the library studying for some history test that their teacher had decided to spring on them the day before. eddie was reading some sappy, romance novel that richie had no particular interest in, but pretended to for the sake of his best friend. richie had his chin rested on eddies shoulder, following his finger across the page as the small boy read aloud to him. from any outsider it would seem as the boys were a couple, maybe dating for quite a while seeming how comfortable they were with each other. letting only the soft voice of the sun-kissed boy fill their ears. eddie glanced to richie at one point, only now realizing how intimate their actions were. his cheeks were officially ablaze. eddie couldn’t let richie see how the intimacy made him feel, so he took a deep and shaky breath before beinging to read to his best friend again.

richie and eddie packed up their things when the bell rang and they wandered to business studies together. they shared that class with ben and stan too, but unfortunately the desks were grouped in twos- so the other two boys sat behind them. on their way to class richie dipped off to go to the bathroom, leaving eddie to make his own way to the classroom. he took his seat and when the roll was called, had to tell the teacher richie was going to be late. at this, the teacher shook her head, expecting nothing less. richie was a star student but his commitment to work was anything but good. roughly 7 minutes later, (eddie? counting the minutes until richies return? never!) richie swaggered into the classroom with a grin on his face. he slid into the seat next to eddie and shot a wink to their teacher, who rolled her eyes and continued writing notes on the board. “why are you so happy?” eddie questioned the boy in a hushed voice, as to not interrupt the class. “just had a good wa-“ “no!” eddie interrupted with a squeal. richie laughed at the boys flushed face and nugged eddies arm.

halfway through the lesson, eddie excused himself to head to the bathroom. the boy locked himself in the first stall and straight away his eyes were drawn to the wall. written, in bright purple marker was a message from the mystery boy.

”i do think i love!! him!!! the golden glow of his skin when the sun hits it is, astonishing, gorgeous. and when i run my hands through his hair i can picture us together, growing old together. it’s so sappy but god, i’m in love. he’s a blessing, my best friend. my all. i promise anyone reading this, i’m not normally emotional but man. today made me fall for him all over again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i’m back kiddos!! schools almost over which means more time to write <3

“how romantic is that richie!” eddie yelled to the boy on their way back to richies place. eddie was in the middle of a rant about the mystery’s boys most recent message. he had explained to richie what it said and how he thought it was so lovely that someone could even feel that way about another guy. let alone express it anywhere in the town of derry. throughout he whole endeavour richie had been quieter than usual, intently listening to the smaller boy ramble.  
“i wish someone loved me like that.”  
the words bought an ache to richies heart. in that very moment he longed to tell eddie how he felt and how it was him that was leaving the messages. but richie couldn’t bring himself to. no matter how brave he made himself seem, when it came to things like confessing your love for your best friend, he was a wimp. so he instead decided to throw his arm around eddies shoulder and nuzzle his hair. “i’m sure someone’ll love you even more then that eds, you deserve it.”  
“that’s not my name.” eddie replied in what seemed to be a harsh tone. but richie knew their was no real fire behind the words.

the two boys turned onto richies street in an unspoken unison. every now-and-then the two would have a study date at richies house which usually went from studying to singing horrible karaoke songs at 4am. these “study” nights were the only school nights that eddies mother would even consider letting him stay and his friends houses- ‘not that it’s her choice’ eddie liked to remind himself. since he stood up and came out to his mother, he’d forced more freedoms upon himself. it was his life after all.  
richie opened the door for eddie and bowed as he walked in, leaving eddie to let a small chuckled arise from his throat. richie bid hello to his mother and began to walk up the stairs, whilst eddie stayed along for a bit longer, talking to maggie. she was a lovely woman. she may be a recovering alcoholic but she’s still like another mother to eddie.  
eventually richie charged downstairs to collect his eddie spaghetti (by literally picking him up and carrying him to his room).  
“i was having a lovely chat with your mother.” eddie scoffed.  
“yeah? well your mother was having lovely chat with my d-“  
“richie! no!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a short 1 for y’all the next will be longer i SWEAR

“now see here, if you divide x with y then you should end up with the percentage income...” richie pointed to the paper. he was seated behind eddie, looking over his shoulder at the boys math homework. as much as eddie tried to do well in school, he could never quite beat richie when it came to grades. richie was a very bright kid- even though he didn’t act like it.  
richies face was right behind eddies neck, when eddie inhaled his nostrils were filled with richies lynx deodorant and peppermint gum. it made him feel safe,,, and a little turne-  
‘NO.’ eddie cut himself off. now was not the time to be thinking like that. 

eddie sighed and packed his homework away before plonking himself down onto richies bed. the bolts were loose and the bed creaked below him. richie threw himself face first down next to eddie and let out a loud groan.  
“eddie, im bored,” he mumbled into the blankets, drawing out each of the syllables, “i wanna do something.”  
“that’s unfortunate.” eddie retorted, rolling onto his side to face the boy. 

richie turned his head to face eddie before very slowly reaching his hand out and touching eddie on the nose.  
“boop.”  
“richie what the fuck?”  
“what?”  
“you shit”


End file.
